Monthly Book Reports
Each month (except August, December, and June) students must read independently and submit a written report on a book or play by a significant writer such as those listed in the College Board’s AP English Course Description. Each book report must be submitted to www.turnitin.com before midnight on the last school day of the month. A printed hard copy will be due at the beginning of the period on the following school day.
Each book report should include bibliographical information (author, title, publication data) and short essay answers to each of the following questions. Be sure to label your answers with numbers and letters corresponding to the questions. The completed book report should be 3-4 pages in length.
1. Plot. (a) Comment briefly on the book’s major incidents. Do not give a plot summary of the entire book. (b) Tell how the incidents you have chosen are important to the book as a whole. For example, do they introduce characters, set up conflicts, provide resolutions, or serve other functions?
2. Setting. (a) Tell when and where the events in the book occur. If the author does not mention specific years or locations, use details from the book to draw conclusions about its setting. (b) Comment on whether the book’s events could have occurred in another place or time. In other words, is the action in the story strongly influenced by its setting? Give reasons for your answer.
3. Characterization. (a) Briefly describe two major characters in the book. Discuss both physical and internal traits, including their ideas, prejudices, emotions, ambitions, etc. How does the author develop the characters? (b) Are the characters static or dynamic? Comment on any changes in the characters during the course of the book. Give reasons for these changes. If the characters do not change, explain why.
4. Tone. (a) What is the author’s prevailing attitude toward readers and toward the book’s subject? For example, is she/he detached, condescending, satiric, sentimental, didactic, or what? (b) Demonstrate, using quoted passages from the book as textual evidence, how the author establishes the tone.
5. Evaluation. (a) Rate the book’s overall effectiveness on a scale from 1-10, ten being the highest rating. (b) Support your opinion with textual evidence—quoted passages—from the book. Be sure to include examples that demonstrate both good and bad aspects of the book.
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